Dai Qing

Both were Chinese Communist Party (CCP) activists and had begun doing intelligence work for the CCP following the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.

They had two more children after Xiaoqing.

Fu Xiaoqing (, born 24 August 1941), better known by her pen name Dai Qing, is a journalist and activist for China-related issues; most significantly against the Three Gorges Dam Project.

Fu Xiaoqing was born 24 August 1941 in Chongqing, Sichuan.

Her father was Fu Daqing, an activist from Jiangxi who had studied Russian in Moscow and participated in armed rebellions in Nanchang and Guangzhou; her mother, Feng Dazhang (alternatively known as Yang Jie), had good family connections and had trained as a petroleum engineer in Japan.

In 1944 or 1945, Japanese occupation forces arrested Daqing and executed him.

Feng was also arrested, but eventually released.

After the Second World War ended, Xiaoqing and her mother moved to Beijing.

Xiaoqing was subsequently adopted by revolutionary leader and politician Ye Jianying, a friend of her father's, and she was raised as part of his family.

Xiaoqing started school and began using the name Fu Ning.

Her middle school provided students with a strong liberal arts education, and Fu read widely as a child, becoming familiar with classic Russian and Western European literature before discovering American authors as a young adult.

Her mother remarried.

From 1960 to 1966, Fu studied automatic missile guidance systems at the Harbin Institute of Military Engineering.

While a student she also became a formal member of the CCP.

After graduating in 1966, Fu was briefly employed at a research institute of the Number Seven Ministry of Machinery Industry, working on gyroscopes for intercontinental ballistic missile guidance systems.

When the Cultural Revolution started that year, Fu joined the Red Guards, but soon began feeling disillusioned with the movement's political leaders.

Although she had not yet reached the politically mandated age for marriage and parenthood, Fu married Wang Dejia, a model research worker she had met at the Ministry research institute.

The couple soon had one child, a daughter.

In 1966, Dai Qing graduated from the Harbin Military Engineering Academy (哈爾濱軍事工程學院), predecessor of National University of Defense Technology.

After graduation, she furthered her studies in Japan to become an oil engineer, and she was also trained as a missile engineer.

In the same year, she worked as an engineer in a top secret plant which specialized in intercontinental missiles.

After working as an engineer, she started her career as a writer/news reporter.

From 1968 to 1971, Fu and Wang were sent to attend governmental cadre schools in Zhanjiang and Dongting Lake, where they were forced to work as labourers on a remote farm.

Their daughter was taken away and given to another family to raise during this period, and Fu was not permitted to leave the farm to visit her, even though she sent most of her monthly earnings to support the child.

They did not see their daughter again until after their release from farm work.

She was noticed in 1969 when the Guangming Daily published her short story which depicted the plight of a husband and a wife separated during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1972, Fu and her husband returned to Beijing and worked as technicians in a surveillance equipment factory under the Ministry of Public Security.

From 1978 to 1979, Fu took English lessons at the PLA Foreign Languages Institute in Nanjing.

She had noticed a widespread lack of children's books for Chinese children and was interested in translating English books for her daughter.

Fu published a short story in November 1979 – her first published work – and at this point began using the name Dai Qing.

While studying at the Foreign Languages Institute, she had been recruited by the Chinese army's intelligence department.

Because of her writing skills and English ability, she was assigned to join the Chinese Writers Association, make foreign contacts, and spy on writers taking part in international exchange programs.

Her career as a spy turned out to be short-lived: her cover was blown by a colleague who gave a list of army personnel to the CIA, and Dai subsequently left the army in 1982.

In 1982, she left the Army and joined Guangming Daily (光明日報) as a news reporter.

As a result, she joined the Chinese Authors Association (中國作者協會) in 1982.

After publishing the short fiction, "Pan" ("盼"), she was paid high tribute as an author.

She then became a reporter for the Guangming Daily (光明日報) (Enlightenment Daily) and she remained as a columnist from 1982 to 1989.

Dai was the first Chinese journalist to announce the views and points of dissidents — people such as astrophysicist Fang Lizhi (方勵之), who held different political views.

She left the Chinese Communist Party after the bloodshed of 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and was thereafter incarcerated for ten months at maximum security facility Qingcheng Prison.

Dai is also an author who has published many influential books, articles, and journals.